Slow Monster Rebuild

I bought a1994 M900 in 1998 second hand as a non runner for £1200. it was a non runner because the tank was half full of water. With that drained out and fresh fuel in it was still a non runner. It turned out that the vacuum petrol pump diaphragm was perished but in those first few days I thought I had bought a pup and having flattened the new battery I did spend a lot of time pushing it up and down my road trying to bump start it.
At the time I had a daily commute from South East London to Euston and I was working horrendous hours. I just got married for the second time moved house and 2 kids arrived in 15 months. The bike was the only thing that kept me sane, unfortunately I never got the time to maintain it properly. It never once let me down but belts went unchanged, new front discs were required rear chain and sprockets were barely serviceable weeping front fork seals etc. etc . Oil was changed regularly. I loved that bike and could not part with it. When the battery expired I just went out and bought a newish S4, which although quite a bit faster I did not enjoy riding anywhere near as much.
The project has a few constraints/guiding principles, not much money is to be spent, the bike must end up a lot lighter than standard, all that I can do I will do myself, and I will try to unlearn the habit of a lifetime which is to rush and bodge rather than doing it properly (I haven't a chance of succeeding on this one).
First job was to build a blast cabinet from an old filing cabinet, a cracked acrylic sheet and some 4" x 2" offcuts, wheels off a shopping trolley and handle from a broken kid's toy. the gloves I had to buy

 

Next job was to make a zinc plating capability using variously rated chargers and a few old paint buckets and plastic chocolate "tins"

 

sorry about picture duplication above, these were mounted on a board so that the work station could be moved easily if I wanted the bench space for other activities.
My lightening exercise involves me drilling every non critical bolt and since most of the bolts on the bike were to a greater or lesser extent corroded anyway re-plating was necessary and I could be sure that the plating extended to the drilled holes.

 

I started next on the engine which to my horror seemed locked up, I soon found out why the petrol tank had drained past the floats into the sump

 

I also soon realised that when it came to removing the engine it would be easier for me alone in the garage to remove the frame from the engine so I needed an engine stand which I knocked up out of some old gas barrel and two bits of angle iron. More by luck than judgement I managed to make it so that it can be withdrawn between the front wheel and the front pot.

 

The strip down continued and the biggest issue for me was what to do first, I knew I wanted a two into one exhaust (to save weight) and I also wanted a parallelogram floating rear caliper hanger. I cannot weld very tidily as seen on the engine stand and thin stainless steel tube would be well beyond me so the exhaust would have to be done by competent others. The positioning of the anchor point for the reaction rod for the parallelogram rear brake could influence the exhaust position exiting on the RH side.
I also wanted a single seat and tidying up of the rear end.

 

Meanwhile, after scouring the internet, I got a new clutch slave cylinder from China c£55 and an alloy clutch basket from Italia c£80.
I still needed new alloy clutch plates and an alloy clutch hub. The original steel friction plates would tear up the new alloy hub and the old steel hub was badly fretted. That was my justification for buying them anyway but the reality was that the weight saving was significant. I did start to keep a log of all the weight I saved but in the end it became a bit tedious and I gave up. I will just weigh the bike at the end and see how much has come off.
New rear set footrests came from somewhere recommended on the Desmodue website. Nice quality and only £110. There is no rear brake light switch mounting position on the rear sets so a brake light switch union bolt was purchased from China for about £3.50

 

Comfysofa - this is like a striptease you have to be patient and it is after all a slow Monster build

 

The passenger grab rails had to go so out with the angle grinder, the first time I have ever butchered a frame and this was the point where the rebuild became irreversible. I thought long and hard before doing it- should I just do a complete original restoration? or should I build the bike that I wanted? Well it is done now!

 

Stupid Mistake
Stripping the engine I got hold of an alternator case removal tool from Seeley (c £7.00) and proceeded to attach it to the two 6mm screws on the outside of the casing and duly wound them in. The case did not move. ???? So I wound them in a bit more thinking the gasket was stuck. There was a horrible cracking sound and I knew I had a problem.
Before I started working on the bike I had promised myself that I would clean and de-grease everything so that I would be doing it properly. Because the bike was on the hydraulic lift and I did not want all the grit and sh** to drop onto the lift, I did not do the necessary cleaning.
There is a 6mm socket head cap screw between the two forward facing screws attaching the clutch slave cylinder. The void where it sits was completely blocked with old chain grease. The casing had split around the bolt I had not undone because I didn't realise it was there. Bollox!!!
Lesson always clean before dismantling!!!
The alternator casing on my M900 is a bit difficult to replace. It has the oil drain tubes from the barrel separate, later models from (I think) 95 onwards have the oil draining through the barrels and therefore no need for the external drain pipes.
A replacement casing would have been like rocking horse manure. Fleabay was searched but nothing forthcoming after about 2 months. I therefore had no alternative but to look for a welding repair. I thought first of trying the lower temperature aluminium "welding" available on Fleabay but friends advised that there was no substitute for doing a "proper job".
Local alloy welding "specialists" were not keen, eventually I tried T3 who took the job on. T3 used to prepare all the bikes for the Triumph Challenge, now extinct. The bikes in their workshop were exquisite. I began to wonder if I would not be better to convert a 675 Triumph.
After 2 weeks they said that the cases were done. They had to weld it twice because there was so much oil ingrained into the alternator casting (c£80.00).